In the retail industry, the largest expenditures are typically the cost of the goods sold followed closely by the cost of labor expended. With particular regard to the retail grocery or supermarket industry, the impetus to reduce labor costs has focused on reducing or eliminating the amount of time required to handle and/or process items or goods to be purchased. To this end, a number of self-service checkout terminal concepts have been developed which substantially eliminate the need for a checkout clerk.
One improvement which has had a large impact on reducing the amount of time required to process items through an assisted checkout terminal or a self-service checkout terminal is the use of optical scanning equipment such as scanners or bar code readers. Unfortunately, there are a fair number of items available in a grocery store that do not have a bar code such as a universal product code (UPC) associated therewith. Generally, those items not having a bar code associated therewith are items, such as produce, whose price is based upon the weight of the item. The trend in the supermarket industry has been to determine the weight of a produce item at the checkout terminal during the checkout process by using a product weight scale (typically associated with a slot scanner device).
In order to checkout or otherwise process a produce item, a user (i.e. the customer) of the self-service checkout terminal places the produce item on the product scale and then performs a data entry procedure for the produce item. In particular, the produce item resting on the weight scale is typically identified by entering or otherwise selecting a product look-up (PLU) code via a data input device such as a keypad or touch screen.
Once the produce item has been weighed and properly identified, a processing unit associated with the retail checkout terminal determines a price for the produce item based in part on the weight of the produce item. In particular, the weight of the produce item, as determined by the product scale, is multiplied by a cost code (typically expressed as a price per unit of weight) associated with the PLU code. Such cost codes are stored in or transmitted to a processing unit associated with the self-service checkout terminal during the checkout process.
After completion of a number of measurements, the product scale may need to be reset. In particular, after a number of measurements, the product scale may actually register a positive or negative non-zero weight value despite the fact that an item is not resting on the product scale thereby generating an erroneous reading during a subsequent weight measurement by the user. For example, if the product scale registers a weight of one-tenth of a pound (instead of zero pounds) prior to the time at which the user places two pounds of apples thereon, the product scale may erroneously determine the weight of the apples to be two and one-tenth pounds. Hence, the user of the self-service checkout terminal may be charged for the extra weight (i.e. one-tenth pound), but yet not receive the produce (i.e. the apples) corresponding thereto.
Such erroneous measurements may be due to a number of conditions. For example, the product scale may have accumulated contamination such as dust and debris thereon. Typically, the checkout clerk operating an assisted retail checkout terminal is trained to verify that the product scale is registering a weight of zero pounds (within a predetermined tolerance range) prior to weighing an item therewith. If the product scale is not registering a weight of zero pounds (within the predetermined tolerance range), the checkout clerk will press a "reset" button associated with the product scale thereby attempting to reset the product scale to a value in which the product scale registers a weight of zero pounds (within the predetermined tolerance range). After the checkout clerk presses the reset button, if the product scale still does not register a weight of zero pounds (within the predetermined tolerance range), the checkout clerk may clean or otherwise remove any contamination from the product scale and thereafter press the reset button again. After which, the checkout clerk may take additional corrective measures, such as summoning maintenance personnel, if the product scale still does not register a weight of zero pounds (within the predetermined tolerance range).
However, the user of a self-service checkout terminal (i.e. the customer) may not have any prior training in the operation of the checkout terminal. Therefore, the user may not be aware of the necessity or procedure for resetting the product scale. Hence, the user may operate the product scale in a manner which may generate a number of erroneous weight measurements.
What is needed therefore is an apparatus and method for resetting the product scale of retail checkout terminal. What is further needed is an apparatus and method for resetting the product scale of a self-service checkout terminal which reduces the number of occasions in which the user generates erroneous weight measurements while operating the product scale.